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Battle of the Planets
Battle of the Planets was the first English-language adaptation of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, which debuted on TV on September 1, 1978. It is a loose adaptation of the source material, edited to better appeal to the sci-fi trend of the late 1970s (in the wake of Star Wars), as well as remove content deemed to be objectionable for younger viewers. This version was produced by Sandy Frank Entertainment, known for their dubs of Japanese kaiju films as well as producing "Name That Tune". Sandy Frank first acquired the Gatchaman license in 1977, and their license gave them international rights to the original series for thirty years. Upon the expiration of the license in early 2007, "Battle of the Planets" and "G-Force: Guardians of Space" (the second English adaptation of Gatchaman) reverted back to Tatsunoko Productions. Key Changes in the Adaptation Gatchaman underwent a heavy reversioning in order to become "Battle of the Planets". What follows are some of the changes made. Name Changes * Ken Washio became "Mark". * Joe Asakura became "Jason". * Jun became "Princess". * Jinpei became "Keyop". * Ryu Nakanishi became "Tiny Harper". * Dr. Kozaburo Nambu became "Chief Anderson". * Oddly, in turn, Director Anderson was renamed "President Kane". * Berg Katse was renamed "Zoltar", and stated to be an alien from the planet Spectra. X was renamed "The Spirit" or "The Great Spirit" (among various nicknames) and was said to be the alien ruler of Spectra. * Red Impulse was renamed "Colonel Cronus". * The Science Ninja Team was renamed "G-Force". The Bird Style names were left out, along with the G- designations. * The Galactor organization was renamed "Spectra", after the planet they are said to come from. Additions by Sandy Frank These portions were animated by a studio called Gallerie International. *A super-intelligent robot named 7-Zark-7 was added, to fill in the gaps left behind by edits and provide exposition for the viewers. Zark also was given a dog, 1-Rover-1, and an unseen love interest named "Susan" who was stationed on planet Pluto (she was named after a secretary of Sandy Frank). *Newly-created outer space stock footage was utilized for sequences where the Phoenix would travel through outer space. *Gallerie also created a sequence known as "The Ready Room", where the G-Force members would hang out. Excluded elements and other changes * Civilian deaths were edited out, usually with Zark explaining that a place was evacuated. * Joe's backstory was excluded. All viewers know of Jason is that he is an orphan. * As "Keyop", the youngest member of the team was rewritten into a genetically-engineered child with a strange speech impediment. * Tiny Harper is stated to be an orphan like the rest of the team, while Ryu had a living family. His father was rewritten into an acquaintance named "Captain Jack" and his brother also became an unrelated character. * Katse's female self was adapted into four separate named characters; "Agent S-9", Zoltar's sister "Mala", a reporter named "Ms. Ostric", and a spy named "Hannah". * Some of Dr. Nambu's early scenes were dropped or his importance was generally downplayed, in order to give Zark more focus. * Mark's father is first stated to have been killed by an assassin on the planet Riga, leading to Mark seeking vengeance for his death (the episode this was sourced from originally happened after the death of Red Impulse in Gatchaman). Colonel Cronus is a mentor and old friend of Mark's, but is later revealed to be his father. Rather than dying in a sacrifice to stop the V2 plan, Cronus is said to have ejected. * One scene of Ken at Red Impulse's grave was dubbed as Mark visiting the grave of an older brother that died. The first episode in the Red Impulse arc was also adapted separately from the V2 two-parter, and had a scene of Red Impulse thinking about his wife and a younger Ken rewritten to have Cronus missing a wife and a young son named "Timmy". Another episode had Masaki (one of Red Impulse's subordinates) mistakenly dubbed as Cronus, despite the differences in their appearances. * Deaths of Galactor henchmen were entirely cut, or Zark would claim that they were simply knocked out. Similarly, fight scenes tended to be heavily edited, especially portions where Joe was involved. * Scenes of Jun panicking or being unsure of what to do were rewritten to have her come off more capable to female viewers. However, Princess is also said to only work part-time at a snack bar for her friend Jill (explaining the "J" in the name), while Jun had owned the snack bar in the original. Episode Order When adapting Gatchaman, Sandy Frank originally planned to keep the episode order intact. However, as Tatsunoko had sent them the film reels out of order, this lead to the dubbing team translating the episodes in the order that they were received in. Thus, some episodes that originally kept continuity from the previous stories have had said references written out, and watching some episodes in the Gatchaman order will wind up spoiling developments that had yet to actually happen in the original. While Sandy Frank last reverted to the Gatchaman order as the official viewing order, there were a few different viewing orders created for Battle's release in 1978. All in all, at least 85 episodes of Gatchaman were utilized, with #101 ("The Sniper Group Heavy-Cobra") being the latest to be covered. However, in Sandy Frank's suggested order (derived from the order they'd adapted the episodes), their "Invasion of Space Center" two-parter is actually supposed to end the series. The creative team originally wanted to utilize all 105 episodes, but Tatsunoko had only offered to send their last 20 reels relatively late into the production of the English version, and Sandy Frank had already decided that 85 episodes were adequate for syndication. Missing Episode: "Zark Double Zark" However, evidence does suggest that early in the translation project, the creative team did draft a few scripts for entirely original "Battle of the Planets" stories that would be fully animated by Gallerie. One episode, with the production code 106, was titled "Zark Double Zark" and involved Spectra creating an evil duplicate of 7-Zark-7. Copies of the scripts show that they were marked, suggesting that the voice reel was at least completed, and Janet Waldo had attested to having recorded the episode. However, the tapes seem to have been lost or destroyed. Sandy Frank ultimately did not go through with these episodes, as they would have been more expensive to produce. Scrapped Redub In 2004, Sandy Frank made plans for a new version of "Battle of the Planets", titled "Battle of the Planets: The New Adventures of G-Force". It was to use the 20 episodes of Gatchaman that they originally didn't get to utilize, as well as redubs of at least 32 other episodes. A series of "Battle of the Planets" films were also announced by Sandy Frank. It was decided that the Vancouver-based Ocean Studios would handle the ADR production, as the original actors had either passed away or were considered too old to reprise their roles. One pilot was dubbed, titled "The Sea Dragon". However, Sandy Frank ultimately opted to not go ahead with the series, believing it would be too expensive to produce and not wanting to risk it flopping. In the little that is known of this version, Keyop would have reverted to Jinpei's original origin of being an average kid, and the 7-Zark-7 segments would be done in CGI. There would also have been somewhat relaxed standards on violence and carnage. Battle of the Planets: The Movie A compilation film was created by Sandy Frank in 2002, to test the water for their eventual redub plan. It utilized footage from several different episodes and had a new voice actor named David Bret Egen dubbing over Alan Young's dialogue for the 7-Zark-7 sequences. Scenes of civilian violence and death were included. However, while the Zark segments were redubbed and the credits were modified to include Egen's name, the rest of the footage contains the original voice actors' audio (making for some sound discrepancy). Production Staff Produced by: Sandy Frank Film Syndication, Gallerie International Films Ltd. Executive Producers: Jameson Brewer, Sandy Frank Associate Producer: Warner E. Leighton Producer-Directors: David E. Hanson, Alan Dinehart Writers: Jameson Brewer, Peter B. Germano, William Bloom, Jack Paritz, Harry Winkler, Helen Sosin, Muriel Germano, Dick Shaw, Kevin Coates, Howard Post, Sid Morse Supervising Film Editor: Franklin Cofod Assistant Editor: Pam Bentkowski Voice Director: Alan Dinehart Assistant Voice Director: Mason Alan Dinehart (credited as "Alan Dinehart, Jr.") Creative Consultant: David Levy Standards and Practices: Winifred Treimer Program Consultants: Leonard Reeg, George Serban, M.D. Production Executives: Irving Klein, Tom Swafford Production Assistant: Bob Robinson Production Manager: Emil Carle Animation Supervisor: Harold Johns Design Consultant: Alex Toth Music Composers: Hoyt Curtin, Dennis Dreith, Richard Greene Music Supervisors: Paul DeKorte, Igo Kantor ADR Recording: TV-R Hollywood Camera: Take One Ink and Paint: C&D Productions, Hollywood Titles: Thomas Wogatzke Voice Cast *Mark: Casey Kasem *Jason: Ronnie Schell, David Joliffe ("Attack of the Space Terrapin" pilot only) *Princess, Susan: Janet Waldo *Keyop, 7-Zark-7: Alan Young *Tiny, Chief Anderson: Alan Dinehart, Ronnie Schell (Tiny, pilot only) *Zoltar, The Spirit, Colonel Cronus: Keye Luke *Opening Credits Announcer: William Woodson *Additional voices (uncredited): Alan Oppenheimer, David Joliffe, William Woodson, Takayo Fischer, Wendy Young, Alan Dinehart, Jr. Notes * The Dineharts are occasionally mixed up on fan sites, as the elder Alan Dinehart was actually the second in line in the family, while Mason Alan Dinehart was actually the third but usually credited as "Jr." *Voice actors outside of Kasem, Schell, Waldo, Young, Dinehart, and Luke were only ever listed in the credits for the pilot. The knowledge of the other actors comes from records at Sandy Frank as well as Jason Hofius' "G-Force: Companion", although most of their roles are officially unlisted. Comic Adaptations